Mowing The after effects of my 1635 and 5' rhino 160 cutter

[merrickvilleguy]

Put 5hrs on the mower yesterday dealing with 1 of my fields that is in rough shape (prickly ash/etc). I had previously done 1ac of this 4ac field by hand/chainsaw in about 15 man hrs (3 of us splitting duties). Quite remarkable what a compact tractor can do, I figure about 4.9gals of fuel was used, and thats with the tunes going and ac on. The activity of the birds post mow pretty much tells me the black flies were going nuts and would not have been fun sans cab.

The field was around a clump of prickly ash per 16sqft of ground, nearly impassable (many bushes pic). There also was a mix of pine and cedar trees from short 3' ones to 8', all of which were easily taken by the mower.

Something I learned, in the large clumps of trees (as seen in the far left of pic 29), backing into it and taking it verrrry slow makes for much easier work and is less likely to just push the cut limbs around the field.

With this and the 8ac we did a couple weeks ago I now only have 38ac to go for the 50 we're looking at working. Then its on to grubbing and finally chain sawing the larger trees down.

oh and for the math on this one (since there have been a few posts about the business side of this):

assuming avg cut of 4 1/2', thats 7.3 mi of driving, 5hrs in the tractor or less that 1 1/2mph including all stops and turns. Avg 75min/ac. Taking the fuel into account, thats about 1.23 gals/ac. Fuel for that is pretty cheap, less than $3.5cad/ac, but, time, wear and tear on the mower/tractor/you, not so much. Figure the mowers $1200cad and lasts you 300ac of heavy cutting before calling it quits, thats $4cad/ac right there. If the 150hr maint costs you $300cad (to have someone else do it), thats $2cad/hr or $1.25cad/ac. So before profit, wear and tear (i.e. damage to tractor), insurance, travel time, etc etc etc We're talking $9cad/ac just in disposables.

Add on a few hrs of grubbing and chain sawing to get the field completely cleared and will probably see about 5hrs+/acre to go from overgrown to ready to disk.

 

[jimmysisson]

I'm glad you did the calculations so the rest of us don't have to! I'm also glad to see land being reclaimed from the speedy forestation we're now used to. Our forebears did this at great personal effort, and so should we.
Jim

 

[merrickvilleguy]

Ya seriously, waaay back this used to be an orchard, but the place hasn't been touched since the mid 80's at least. All the fence lines are shot, the paddocks (I'm assuming they did animals as well) are long since deteriorated. Heck, the 70 acres at the back behind the 50 we're clearing is so treed that without wandering on the ground you'd never know it was farmed, there are several generations of trees in there so it has to be at least 50-60 years of neglect. It was neat though to wander through the bush in deer season and come across a cedar fenceline that was nailed together using those flat nails.

It's one thing I've noticed around here, city folks buy up severs or neglected farms for on the cheap to have their "home in the country" ... then let the land go to fallow. The guys who worked the land didn't have the tools we do now, and their work is going to waste. Luckily we have tools not to make this considerably easier to work with and reclaim. I know looking at the acre we did by hand with chainsaws this whole job would be around 750hrs just for brush hogging. Will take in the area of 75 hrs with the tractor.

 

[Ford tractor]

300 acres and you expect the cutter to be dead? The cutter should last you a LOT longer, unless you cut stuff a lot bigger than the spec limit of 1.5", hit a lot of rocks or leave it outside to rust. Add a zero and recalculate the costs.

 

[merrickvilleguy]

hmm ... kinda figured with the wear and tear of all that brush it wouldn't last quite as long as if it were just mowing weeds and the odd sappling

 

[beenthere]

Are we missing pics after the cutting?
Looks like a good job for a brush cutter. Hope the tires continue to hold air.

Where are these fields that you have prickly ash?

 

[merrickvilleguy]

Ya thats what I was concerned about too, so far so good, I think I'm getting them close enough to the ground to help mitigate that risk (not sure if there is an easy way to avoid a hole outside trying my best not to run over stumps)

I went through the pics I have of the pre season (were taken in april I think) and no pics of prickly ash ... just those clumps of bushes. The missed spots close to the camera in then first pic are because there are a couple downed trees in there and I need to remove them before mowing that down. Some of the other spots are where there are hills that would end up getting scalped by the mower, so I will deal with them with a box blade.

 

[MrBushhog]

keep up the good work....and thank for the break down of price. after reading it i may have to go up on my prices

 

[merrickvilleguy]

Keep in mind the fuel rate/price is dependent on where you are eh. I'm burning about 4L/hr (just over a gallon), and between heavy grass fields, uneven ground and brush with my set up I am seeing about 1 1/2hrs per ac. A bigger mower and tractor will get it done faster, but burn more fuel per hr. So while the fuel would be a wash, the more expensive tractor time and your time would drop down.

Have to say though, it is a lot of fun to see the field turn almost into pasture with a short bit of time on the tractor.

 

[6thgpSF]

Merrickvilleguy where is your place? russ